In Solihull, services are working together to improve the wellbeing and mental health of children and young people. This section of our Local Offer details the wellbeing and mental health services that are available locally.
This means that children, young people, their families and professionals from across the NHS, public health, local authorities, children social care, education, youth justice and voluntary and community organisations are working together to design and provide the best possible services.
Kooth.com - online support for young people
We would like to remind you of the availability of an online service to support the wellbeing and resilience of young people.
Kooth is a web based confidential support service available to young people. Kooth provides a safe and secure means of accessing mental health and wellbeing support designed specifically for young people.
Kooth offers young people the opportunity to have a text-based conversation with a qualified counsellor. Counsellors are available from 12.00pm to 10.00pm on weekdays and 6.00pm to 10.00pm at weekends, every day of the year on a drop-in basis. Young people can access regular booked online counselling sessions as needed. Outside of counselling young people can message the team and get support the next day.
When young people register with Kooth they will have support available to them now and in the future. Support can be gained not only through counselling but articles, forums and discussion boards. This includes information about current affairs. All content is age appropriate, clinically approved and fully moderated.
You can also view a short video about their service.
SOLAR
Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, Barnardo’s and Autism West Midlands work together to provide emotional wellbeing and mental health services for children and young people in Solihull. They provide multi-disciplinary assessment and treatment of children and young people with mental health or severe emotional and behavioural difficulties.
Situational Mutism Information Pack
This Situational Mutism (SM) Information Pack was co-produced following feedback from Birmingham and Solihull
Parent Carers that there was little information about how to get support for children, young people and young adults with Situational Mutism.
This pack includes:
- Information about Situational Mutism and how it presents
- Feedback from young people on their experience of SM
- Advice and guidance for professionals and parent/carers
- Signposting to resources for young people, professionals and parent carers
Situational Mutism Information Pack
Local Transformation Plans
To support this local leadership and accountability, NHS England asked Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), now Integrated Care Systems to work with commissioners and providers across health, social care, education and youth justice and the voluntary sector, to develop Local Transformation Plans for children and young people’s mental health.
These plans set out how local services will invest resources to improve children and young people’s mental health across the “whole system”.
The pandemic has seen the demand for services exceed what is normally expected but these have not been normal times and the demand continues. Children and young people missed so much time been together in education settings, some of our most vulnerable communities were disproportionately affected by the pandemic. The healthy inequities across the health system were seen more starkly in the high numbers of our BAME communities who lost their lives and have suffered a bereavement.
The pandemic has also impacted on our workforce and it continues to do. Our workforce has time and time again demonstrated a commitment and passion for the work they do. They have adapted how and when they work, they have developed IT skills to ensure they continue to support our children, young people and their families.
Due to the pandemic we have not been able to undertake the breadth of co-production that we would typically do but we will continue to refine and update our plans as are consultation process with children, young and families continues.
Our 22/23 plan is different this year due to the pandemic but we hope that you still see the great work that was and continues to delivered under the most testing of circumstances. Our financial investment in 22/23 will continue to be driven by addressing the gaps in care and addressing inequalities experienced by our communities.
In line with NHS England requirements, we are publishing our: